U.S. Open: Venus Williams loses long three-set match

NEW YORK -- After her latest early Grand Slam exit, Venus Williams was asked what the future holds for her at the U.S. Open.

In one breath, Williams brushed aside the unspoken reference to retirement, saying, "I definitely want to come back for the atmosphere."

And in the next, she added, "I mean, next year's Open is so far away right now."

At 33, slowed the past couple years by an autoimmune disease that saps energy and hampered much of this season by a bad back, Williams knows by now that such queries are going to arrive, particularly after results such as her 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5) loss to 56th-ranked Zheng Jie of China on a wet Wednesday at Flushing Meadows. It is the third year in a row that the two-time champion is out of the U.S. Open after two rounds.

"If I didn't think I had anything in the tank, I wouldn't be here," said Williams, who was ranked No. 1 in 2002 and is currently 60th. "I feel like I do, and that's why I'm here."

The American acquitted herself well for stretches, erasing deficits over and over again, until she simply ran out of solutions against Zheng, a former top-15 player and twice a major semifinalist.

"I just kept trying to fight today," Williams said.

In what she took as an encouraging sign, Williams was out there for 3 hours, 2 minutes, tying for the fifth-longest women's match since 1970 at the U.S. Open. The third set alone lasted 1½ hours.

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Near the finish line, she faltered. On the final two points, Williams missed a volley, then a return. She wound up with 44 unforced errors in all, half on forehands, in part because Zheng kept scrambling along the baseline to get to balls and block them back, making Williams hit extra shots.

Rain began falling in the early afternoon, jumbling the schedule, and eight women's singles matches were postponed entirely, including Williams' younger sister Serena against Galina Voskoboeva.

Venus Williams and Zheng played all of two points before being interrupted by showers. When they resumed two hours later, Williams kept making mistakes.

"I couldn't pray a ball in," she said.

But in the second set, Williams looked more like someone who won the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001, and five Wimbledon titles.

Every point she won, it seemed, drew clapping and screaming from on-their-feet spectators. "I love that. I wish I could play some more for that," Williams said.

A drizzle halted action elsewhere, but Williams and Zheng continued.

Zheng led 4-1 in the tiebreaker, before Williams made one last stand. But at 5-all, Williams put a backhand volley into the net as she lost her footing. "I should have made the shot," Williams said. "I was just rushing."

That gave Zheng her first match point, and Williams' backhand return missed, ending her stay in the singles draw.